Vancouver Foundation has made a grant of $127,000 in support of City Opera's next commission, Missing Women.

The new chamber opera will be set in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and along the Highway of Tears. The three-year grant will allow City Opera to research, commission and create, test and workshop the new opera.

First Nations playwright, filmmaker and performance artist Marie Clements has been selected as the librettist. The composer will be chosen through an anonymized jury process at the Canadian Music Centre in April 2016. A dramaturge and a stage director are now being selected.

Missing Women is set to premiere in Vancouver in November 2017, and will be designed for touring. City Opera hopes to take it along the Highway of Tears, to Winnipeg, to Ottawa, and to other Canadian centres.